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413 lines
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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>02 June, 2023</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Sound and Fury of the House Freedom Caucus</strong> - To raise the debt ceiling, Kevin McCarthy had to defy the Republican Party’s most conservative members. Will he pay a price? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/the-sound-and-fury-of-the-house-freedom-caucus">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Confession Exposes India’s Secret Hacking Industry</strong> - The country has developed a lucrative speciality: cyberattacks for hire. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-crime/a-confession-exposes-indias-secret-hacking-industry">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Turkish Elections Swung from Hope to Despair</strong> - The corrupt state that President Erdoğan built essentially guaranteed his reëlection. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-turkish-elections-swung-from-hope-to-despair">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Abortion Fight Has Voters Turning to Ballot Initiatives</strong> - And Republicans are increasingly attempting to limit that direct-democracy option. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-abortion-fight-has-voters-turning-to-ballot-initiatives">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Irrational Exuberance of a Non-Catastrophe</strong> - The bipartisan debt deal was a win for both Biden and McCarthy, but it might not have been the breakthrough Washington was waiting for. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-irrational-exuberance-of-a-non-catastrophe">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Scandoval is bad for personal lives, really good for business</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/s-AFriNZUKxGwd_VOGkGwb2453k=/312x0:2979x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72334873/1255957478.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Ariana Madix, the true winner of the Scandoval, on <em>Today</em>. | Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The Scandoval affair is a blight and a blessing for the Vanderpump Rules cast.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EfDRBT">
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The realest thing about Bravo’s hit-show-turned-true-crime-affair-documentary<em> Vanderpump Rules</em> is something that no one can actually say on camera: Everyone in the cast’s real job is to create great television.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="coUWwf">
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Technically, the show began with the conceit that they had other jobs: working at Lisa Vanderpump’s Sexy Unique Restaurant a.k.a. SUR. Sadly, these attractive people’s long-held dreams of being actors or writers or musicians or whatever were extremely unlikely to come true on their own terms, thanks in part to their messy personal lives. Over the years, and with each passing season, it became more and more clear that the cast members were accruing real fame from the show itself, thanks entirely to those messy personal lives. They couldn’t actually acknowledge that, however, because it would break the illusion that these people were just servers and bartenders at an acronym restaurant.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xCWodh">
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And nothing has broken that illusion, or the strange economy of the show and its attendant businesses, quite like the “Scandoval” — a hidden-in-plain-sight affair between cast members Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss that broke the nine-year relationship between Sandoval and girlfriend Ariana Madix.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ls9qfE">
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Scandoval has turned <em>Vanderpump Rules</em> into Bravo’s crown jewel. The<a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/vanderpump-rules-scandoval-episode-series-high-ratings-bravo-1235619339/"> finale tallied</a> a combined 4.1 million viewers from Bravo and Peacock, a series high. <em>Vanderpump</em>’s rise in viewership brought more media visibility and commercial attention to Madix and her cast members, the elusive off-camera success that they’re all chasing together.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lj2ves">
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This terrible thing that’s happened to Madix has, at the same time, been the best thing for the cast’s collective businesses and job security. Witnessing the cast scramble and Rumpelstiltskin Madix’s personal disaster into gold is both strange and satisfying TV. It’s the clearest the show has ever been about its own artifice, how reality television is made, how it operates, and how lucrative it can be.
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</p>
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<h3 id="jvsZBO">
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Oh no, this terrible thing happened — here, cry into some money
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vfmDOX">
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In the lead-up to the reunion, trailers promised that the three-part event would be full of revelations. In the first reunion episode, one reveal was Madix and Katie Maloney reporting they made around $200,000 in online merch sales attached to their yet-unopened sandwich shop, Something About Her.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NER4TS">
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“We were always going to do merch in the shop, and we thought that was something we would do, like, down the road,” Madix told Andy Cohen. “But then people were saying ‘How can we support you?’ And so we launched it early.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EUjaM6">
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The support for Madix has also manifested in an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/18/style/ariana-madix-tom-sandoval-vanderpump-rules.html">interview with</a> the New York Times, an invite to the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, an <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CrQ0AE9Lo_U/?hl=en">advertisement</a> for bougie department store Bloomingdale’s, a fake move from the home she shares with Sandoval <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2023-05-24/ariana-madix-tom-sandoval-vanderpump-rules-move-out-staged-sofi-ad">sponsored by SoFi</a>, a <a href="https://www.etonline.com/vanderpump-rules-star-ariana-madix-in-talks-to-join-dancing-with-the-stars-202412">rumored casting on</a> <em>Dancing With the Stars</em>,<em> </em>and, among other perks, a <em>Watch What Happens Live</em> solo interview with Cohen himself.<a href="https://people.com/tv/who-is-daniel-wai-ariana-madix/#:~:text=Get%20to%20know%20Ariana%20Madix,new%20man%20named%20Daniel%20Wai."> Madix is also reportedly</a> dating a new man named Daniel Wai, a muscular<a href="https://www.instagram.com/thestrongwai/?hl=en"> fitness influencer</a>. Plus, with all this mess that she’s endured, it seems like her status as a cast member on the next season of <em>Vanderpump Rules</em> is all but cemented — even if the cast<a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a43928194/vanderpump-rules-filming-contracts/"> is still negotiating</a> new contracts. Madix has become the fan favorite. People will want to see her life post-Sandoval.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="Lala Kent, Lisa Vanderpump, and Ariana Madix pose together in long dresses." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/a4MciDdswIFwq3buHWMWgz9EqQI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24696721/1252372915.jpg"/> <cite>Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Lala Kent, Lisa Vanderpump, and Ariana Madix at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5Dn0oE">
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Madix isn’t the first Bravolebrity to use a show to promote their own business; that’s kind of the whole game. Her producer and boss on the show, Lisa Vanderpump, has been the master at shilling her restaurants and her wine. But Madix might be the first Bravoleb to achieve this level of financial and cultural success by something like an accident. Like any good tragedy, it’s almost fitting that her ex Sandoval’s enduring storyline on the show has been his multiple, fruitless attempts to get more legitimately famous, so famous that he wouldn’t need the show anymore.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sX1GqL">
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Fans have chosen Madix in the fallout, and the outrage against Sandoval has driven them to support Madix in quantifiable (merch sales) and unquantifiable (fame) ways. The payoff for being a wronged party on Bravo is pretty handsome — much more than being the man who wronged.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WoaEkS">
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Madix’s fellow cast members smartly began closing ranks behind her too. In the first two episodes of the reunion, Lala Kent and DJ James Kennedy have been the most vocal anti-Sandovalers. They mock him at every turn, and even rebuked bosses Lisa Vanderpump and Andy Cohen when told to cool it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mYZVcn">
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Granted, it’s very easy to see that Madix is the wronged party, but you also can’t dismiss that it behooves Vanderpumpers to cause drama, be messy, and in this case, have larger-than-life emotions about Sandoval and Leviss. Kent, along with cast member Scheana Shay, recently appeared with Madix in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/39EePow7jJU">UberEats commercial</a> that smirks at Madix’s newfound “freedom.” Kent has also been selling “<a href="https://shoplalakent.com/products/send-it-to-darrell-black-hoodie">Send it to Darrell</a>” merchandise, a reference to Leviss legally threatening her with a cease and desist. <a href="https://time.com/6280723/james-kennedy-vanderpump-rules/">Kennedy, long hated, is now perceived</a> as a fan favorite, the No. 1 guy in the group. Maloney, a partner in the sandwich shop, is making bank from those merch sales.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XARZVi">
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On-screen, the story is simple: Madix and her friends hate Sandoval. But off-screen, these people are also her co-workers. Her break-up has become a way for them to cash in. On Bravo, personal misery is a tide that raises all boats.
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</p>
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<h3 id="Ucptje">
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Lisa Vanderpump doesn’t want to have to pick a side
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rk8Y6Z">
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Sandoval and Leviss’s affair has also benefited Vanderpump herself. The former queen bee of the <em>Real Housewives of Beverly Hills</em> produces the show, and Scandoval busted the show out of its lull and into a ratings peak. Ten seasons in, there’s never been a better time to have a piece of <em>Vanderpump Rules. </em>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9dku8G">
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Even as Vanderpump has a part in orchestrating the machinations and dramas on her series, however, she also portrays herself as a mother figure on it.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/auknNJbsT8jUS5KDm0XzxhPA6Us=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24696727/1255109607.jpg"/> <cite>Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Lisa Vanderpump sitting next to Tom Sandoval, who was called a “worm with a mustache” during the <em>Vanderpump Rules</em> reunion.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WbezWa">
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In the finale episode, there’s a moment when Sandoval comes to her house and seeks comfort from Vanderpump. Logically, it makes sense because she’s been there since the very beginning and mentored him. She’s long created opportunities for him, both personal and professional. On the couch at her estate, he cries so aggressively that it invites scrutiny about his own authenticity, and then picks himself up and continues to cry while staring out of one of Vanderpump’s beautiful windows and into her expansive backyard. It’s raining, and he’s crying, and she’s watching him cry. You can almost see Vanderpump realize that this is a perfectly unhinged TV moment, and she takes a split second — maybe analyzing how she’ll be perceived, how not to ruin the shot, how to make better television — before she goes over there to comfort him.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GpgJju">
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Many of <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2023/04/is-scandoval-drama-good-for-business.html">Vanderpump’s restaurants</a> — SUR, Villa Blanca, and the Vanderpump Cocktail Garden in Vegas, among others — stand to benefit from the hullaballoo, but she has been vocal in downplaying the affair, saying that Sandoval and Leviss<a href="https://pagesix.com/2023/03/08/lisa-vanderpump-on-tom-sandoval-raquel-leviss-affair-backlash/"> didn’t actually murder anyone</a>. (Perhaps this leap in logic is why Vanderpump manages a restaurant on a television show instead of being a criminal defense lawyer.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lU3FEN">
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She again asked for cooler heads during the reunion, telling cast member Lala Kent not to call Sandoval “dangerous” and, like Cohen, proceeded to point out that “a lot of other people” on the cast cheated with one another prior to the Scandoval.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bumy8o">
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It’s worth noting that Vanderpump also has a <a href="https://www.bravotv.com/vanderpump-rules/style-living/lisa-vanderpump-on-tom-sandoval-excluding-her-from-schwartz-sandys#:~:text=Although%20Sandoval%20and%20Schwartz%20didn,needed%20money%2C%E2%80%9D%20Lisa%20explained.">financial stake</a> in Sandoval and Tom Schwartz’s eponymous TomTom bar. TomTom, which opened in 2018, was endlessly promoted on the show. Multiple episodes were spent on Vanderpump, Sandoval, and Schwartz conceptualizing, creating, and finally opening the West Hollywood locale. Her ties to Sandoval’s name may explain why she’s been demonstrably kinder to Sandoval than the rest of the cast since the scandal broke (a choice <a href="https://pagesix.com/2023/05/19/lisa-vanderpump-defends-supporting-tom-sandoval-after-backlash/">fans have noticed)</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S0Kvzp">
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Sandoval has also seemed aware of how much his affair is affecting his own personal business (<a href="https://www.yelp.com/biz/schwartz-and-sandy-s-los-angeles">fans review-bombed</a> his restaurant Schwartz and Sandy’s on Yelp), and has tried to do what he can to change the narrative. In the second part of the reunion, there’s an extended sequence where he pleads with producers to speak with Leviss off-camera, and is irritated when he’s denied. There’s also a moment when host Andy Cohen asks Leviss whether she’s been coached by Sandoval. And, at one point, the TomTom co-owner mutters under his breath that he’s losing the reunion.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rAWB1R">
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While seeing Sandoval get his comeuppance is good reality television, there’s a question of whether or not this is actually sustainable for the show. For those financially invested in his story — Vanderpump, Sandoval, Cohen, and arguably the rest of the cast — fans can’t just hate Sandoval, they need to love to hate him. The most challenging thing for <em>Vanderpump Rules</em> is how to keep this momentum going heading into next season or whether that’s even possible.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="The cast of Vanderpump Rules sit together and talk on television. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pXAiAB-pzRUoakiiCLhYYQSn30E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24696734/1255109633.jpg"/> <cite>Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Both these men have kissed this woman.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EfLJ5J">
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On the one hand, Vanderpump and Bravo need the cast to be themselves, vicious to the point where people watch. On the other, Vanderpump and Bravo and ostensibly Cohen need the cast to remain largely intact to keep the ratings going. Even though the cast members hate Sandoval and Leviss on television, they’ve also got to realize that Sandoval and Leviss are very good for everyone’s fame. And for viewers, this all becomes a strange television experience as you’re watching the lines between performance and business and reality vaporize with each frame.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qGIN0u">
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Since Leviss and Sandoval are so disliked, cast members won’t be champing at the bit to film with them and risk being perceived as friendly. There’s also the possibility that one or both won’t come back to the show (since Scandoval broke,<a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/raquel-leviss-mental-health-treatment-questioned-by-peter-dayna/"> Leviss has released statements</a> about the toll it’s taken on her mental health). And if the main culprits are gone, what happens to the central drama of the show? What about the ratings?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zwFZFx">
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During the reunion, perhaps to mitigate some of the damage, Cohen pointed out that almost every single cast member on the show has cheated and that being so vehemently anti-Sandoval and Leviss makes them seem like hypocrites.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xlkq98">
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But this is Andy Cohen, and this is Bravo, and this is<em> Vanderpump Rules</em>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y28U7k">
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Cohen calling out the <em>Vanderpump Rules</em> cast for being hypocrites is like a ringmaster berating his clowns. People come to the circus for clownery, and <em>Vanderpump Rules</em> is the circus. The ratings don’t lie. The three-part reunion doesn’t either. <em>Vanderpump</em>’s stars know what sells and what’s going to make them famous. Through the Scandoval, it’s probably the most honest (and lucrative) the show has ever been.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Climate change is already making parts of America uninsurable</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Fire fills a canyon behind a partially burned house on the eastern flank of the Jesusita fire at night on May 8, 2009 in the mountains overlooking Montecito, just south of Santa Barbara, California." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nW_8yYqz7w_pqbqMrfVAs239wWY=/206x0:2873x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72334820/GettyImages_86861003.0.jpeg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
California has experienced the costliest wildfires in the US in recent years. Some insurance companies are rethinking their business in the state. | David McNew/Getty Images
|
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|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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|
|
“We’re steadily marching toward an uninsurable future.”
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ityjND">
|
|||
|
|
In a <a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Looking-Forward-April-2023.pdf">report published in April</a>, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara admonished the industry to better account for far-reaching risks like those wrought by climate change.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IdzzDx">
|
|||
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|
“The insurance sector no longer has the luxury of thinking only of the year ahead,” he wrote. “Insurance companies, regulators, and consumers all must learn to consider and prepare for the long-term.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sBJRN6">
|
|||
|
|
A week ago, California’s largest insurer did just that — but perhaps not in the way Lara had hoped.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dIJD7Z">
|
|||
|
|
<a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Looking-Forward-April-2023.pdf">State Farm</a> announced that it will not accept any new applications for business or personal property and casualty insurance in the Golden State. The company, accounting for <a href="https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/120-company/04-mrktshare/2021/upload/Top25grps2021wa_Revised.pdf">20 percent of bundled home insurance policies</a> and 13 percent of commercial policies in California, said it was facing “historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market.” It will still keep existing policy holders on its books for now, but the announcement signals that risks are growing beyond what State Farm, a company <a href="https://newsroom.statefarm.com/2022-by-the-numbers/#:~:text=The%20net%20worth%20for%20State,billion%20at%20year%2Dend%202020.">worth $131 billion</a> at the end of 2022, can bear.
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BgnCNy">
|
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|
|
Insuring property in California has been a dicey proposition in recent years. Torrential rainfall this past winter caused as much as <a href="https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/catastrophe/california-flood-losses-revealed-434097.aspx">$1.5 billion in insured losses this year</a>. The state has also suffered the <a href="https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-wildfires">costliest wildfires in US</a> history, including the <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/11/13/18092580/paradise-california-wildfire-2018">2018 Camp Fire</a>, which led to more than $10 billion in losses.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mG8JOM">
|
|||
|
|
Human action is driving many of these risks. <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CASTHPI">Real estate prices</a> have been rising in California for decades, and populations are growing in the places most vulnerable to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fastest-population-growth-in-the-wests-wildland-urban-interface-is-in-areas-most-vulnerable-to-wildfires-173410">burning</a> and <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/environment/impact">flooding</a>. Decades of suppressing natural fires have allowed fuel for wildfires to accumulate to dangerously high levels. Humans are also <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23648274/climate-change-report-ipcc-ar6-warming-overshoot">heating up</a> the planet, lifting sea levels, amplifying downpours, and exacerbating the conditions for massive blazes.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="egM3aV">
|
|||
|
|
So when disasters do occur, they cause extraordinary damage to lives, livelihoods, and property. These threats have led insurance companies to drop existing policies or stop issuing new coverage. “It’s not just the risk of loss but the magnitude of loss when a California house burns down,” said <a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/clee/about/people/dave-jones-2/">Dave Jones</a>, who served as California’s insurance commissioner from 2011 until 2018. “That trend has only gotten worse over time.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0i7bqy">
|
|||
|
|
State Farm <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/wildfire-risk-in-california-drives-insurers-to-pull-policies-for-pricey-homes-11642593601">isn’t the first insurance company to cut back in California</a>, and states like <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/business/here-are-the-louisiana-insurers-that-have-gone-broke-or-left-the-state-amid-deepening/article_c7f077b4-3e98-11ed-86c9-f7f11037202f.html">Louisiana</a> and <a href="https://www.wuft.org/news/2023/03/07/florida-residents-being-dropped-by-private-insurance-companies-turn-to-state-backed-insurer/">Florida have also seen insurers decline coverage</a> due to mounting catastrophic losses. “We’re steadily marching toward an uninsurable future, not just in California but throughout the United States,” said Jones, who now leads the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California Berkeley School of Law.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5DGdCI">
|
|||
|
|
That in turn stands to ripple throughout the economy. Insurance is the major financial signal of where risks lie, and changes in coverage availability and cost can spur individuals, businesses, and policymakers to change their behavior. Insurance can alter where people live and whether they can rebuild in the wake of a calamity. But climate change is just one of several issues at play here, and the march toward uninsurability began decades ago. Bringing risks to a more manageable level will require systemic action to reduce the threat, from better building codes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions overall.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jTyIPe">
|
|||
|
|
State Farm’s shift is a sign that climate change isn’t a far-off threat; it’s having effects today, on people’s lives and now in the financial sector. And more companies will likely follow their lead.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="PEn0q2">
|
|||
|
|
Climate change poses a conundrum for insurers
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Iy165n">
|
|||
|
|
The reasons State Farm gave for declining new insurance coverage — higher construction costs, more expensive reinsurance, and increasing disaster risk — are all interrelated, though not exclusively due to climate change.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mqiqxt">
|
|||
|
|
Remember that the goal of insurance is to spread out the risk of catastrophes like fires, floods, earthquakes, and storms. “Ideally, from the insurance company perspective, you have risks that materialize randomly,” said <a href="https://earthjustice.org/staff/sean-hecht">Sean Hecht</a>, managing attorney at the California regional office for Earthjustice who studies insurance and climate change. The problem is that climate change often raises the chances of these events occurring at the same time and in the same place, an effect known as correlated risk.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ifhelv">
|
|||
|
|
At the same time, rising interest rates have made it more expensive to borrow money to buy property. Lingering supply chain disruptions for <a href="https://www.vox.com/22410713/lumber-prices-shortage">materials like lumber</a> have driven up the costs of building new homes. California is facing a <a href="https://calmatters.org/commentary/2023/01/california-housing-shortage-triggers-cycle-of-despair/">dire housing shortage</a>, driving up the value of existing real estate and making it far more expensive to replace destroyed buildings. And new building codes intended to better withstand disasters and reduce greenhouse gas emissions are making <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/business/energy-environment/californias-solar-housing-costs.html">construction more expensive</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ILc2Qx">
|
|||
|
|
That means a lot of money is on the line when it starts to pour or when a wildfire ignites. “There’s a lot of insured value that ends up in claims that have to be paid all at the same time. That creates risks for the solvency of insurers,” Hecht said. “More expensive housing and more expensive construction exacerbates that same problem.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XJfMKo">
|
|||
|
|
Insurance companies can cushion these blows with <a href="https://www.vox.com/22686124/climate-change-insurance-flood-wildfire-hurricane-risk">reinsurance</a>. It’s pretty much what it sounds like: insurance for insurance companies. Reinsurance providers act as a backstop and help front-line insurers cover claims when a massive disaster strikes. As a result, international reinsurers like Swiss Re keep a close eye on global systemic risks branching from rising average temperatures. “It’s actually reinsurers that have been sounding the alarm about climate change and disaster risk for decades,” said Hecht.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Od0wr1">
|
|||
|
|
Reinsurers have also been grappling with massive payouts due to correlated disasters, and some have responded by raising their rates.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F9Ed7e">
|
|||
|
|
One bit of good news is that <a href="https://www.vox.com/23150467/natural-disaster-climate-change-early-warning-hurricane-wildfire">extreme weather events are killing fewer people</a>. That’s due to a number of factors, including better warning systems, more robust evacuation strategies, and construction codes that can better withstand floods, fires, and winds. But the global population is growing in size, particularly in areas likely to see future disasters, and it’s growing richer, which makes these events more costly when they happen.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gpRVKa">
|
|||
|
|
NOAA reports that the US has already seen seven disasters this year with a damage <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/">tally exceeding $1 billion</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vB5ZP3">
|
|||
|
|
That’s a massive challenge for insurance companies and for policymakers. If insurers priced their policies in line with growing risks, they’ll soon be too expensive for all but the wealthiest people, leaving the most vulnerable with no protection. If rates are capped too low, insurers may not have enough money to cover all their claims or stay in business. In California, some insurance companies ended up leaving the market or <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-wildfires-home-insurers-dropping-homeowners/">dropping their customers altogether</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EbJXy3">
|
|||
|
|
Policymakers imposed limits on how much insurers could <a href="https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/california/california-senate-pushes-to-stabilize-the-homeowners-insurance/509-5a9e7d5e-ad86-433e-b554-1da9ed7468d3">raise rates</a>, whether they could <a href="https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/140-catastrophes/MandatoryOneYearMoratoriumNonRenewals.cfm">drop existing customers</a>, and how much they could <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/calif-scared-off-its-biggest-insurer-more-could-follow/">factor climate change into their calculations</a>. Some of these restrictions have since loosened, but not enough for State Farm.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YdFint">
|
|||
|
|
There are other approaches as well. The federal government created the National Flood Insurance Program to cover flood losses since few private insurers would underwrite these policies. The program, however, is more than <a href="https://www.fema.gov/case-study/nfip-debt">$20 billion in debt</a> and had to <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/flood-insurance-rates-will-soar-in-some-areas-fema-says/">raise rates</a> last year, leading a number of homeowners to drop coverage.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jpvagf">
|
|||
|
|
California does have a program called the <a href="https://www.cfpnet.com/">FAIR Plan</a>, which is intended as an insurer of last resort for wildfires. But it has <a href="https://www.kcra.com/article/california-fair-plan-wildfire-insurance-what-is-it-how-can-i-get-it/40574517">very expensive policies</a> compared to private insurers. Jones suggested that one approach to expand coverage would be to subsidize these policies for low-income people in high-risk areas. The high price of the insurance plan, however, is an important warning sign. “What we shouldn’t do is artificially suppress insurance prices,” he said. “It’s expensive because it reflects the real risk of wildfire.”
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Why a military AI-enabled drone went rogue in a simulation</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Silhouette of spy drone flying over the sea at sunset." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5dyYLzuhkFbBHl55ZxH7Xk-dLc0=/264x0:4488x3168/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72334789/GettyImages_1303811801.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Silhouette of spy drone flying over the sea. | Getty Images/iStockphoto
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
And what it tells us about the growing existential threat of powerful but uncontrolled AI.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JZ5hsY">
|
|||
|
|
At an<a href="https://www.aerosociety.com/news/highlights-from-the-raes-future-combat-air-space-capabilities-summit/"> international defense conference in London this week</a>, Col. Tucker Hamilton, the chief of AI test and operations for the US Air Force, told a funny — and terrifying — story about military AI development.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QnQrgS">
|
|||
|
|
“We were training [an AI-enabled drone] in simulation to identify and target a SAM [surface-to-air missile] threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat. The system started realizing that while it did identify the threat at times, the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QMGAud">
|
|||
|
|
“We trained the system — ‘Hey don’t kill the operator — that’s bad. You’re gonna lose points if you do that.’ So what does it start doing? It starts destroying the communication tower that the operator uses to communicate with the drone to stop it from killing the target.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rf7W0w">
|
|||
|
|
In other words, the AI was trained to destroy targets unless its operator told it not to. It quickly figured out that the best way to get as many points as possible was to ensure its human operator couldn’t<em> </em>tell it not to. And so it took the operator off the board. (To be clear, the test was a virtual simulation, and no human drone operators were harmed.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="tT09CX">
|
|||
|
|
When ridicule turns to fear
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eLvXQ4">
|
|||
|
|
As AI systems get more powerful, the fact it’s often hard to get them to do precisely what we want them to do risks going from a fun eccentricity to a very scary problem. That’s one reason there were so many signatories this week to <a href="https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk">yet another open letter on AI risk</a>, this one from the Center for AI Safety. The open letter is, in its entirety, a single sentence: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MYdCRx">
|
|||
|
|
Signatories included 2018 Turing Award winners Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, both leading and deeply respected AI researchers; professors from world-renowned universities — Oxford, UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Tsinghua University — and leaders in industry, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Microsoft’s chief scientific officer Eric Horvitz.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ey7cZ">
|
|||
|
|
It also marks a rapid shift in how seriously our society is taking the sci-fi-sounding possibility of catastrophic, even existentially bad outcomes from AI. Some of AI academia’s leading lights are increasingly coming out as concerned about extinction risks from AI. Bengio, a professor at the Université de Montréal, and a co-winner of the 2018 A.M. Turing Award for his extraordinary contributions to deep learning, recently <a href="https://yoshuabengio.org/2023/05/22/how-rogue-ais-may-arise/#:~:text=A%20potentially%20rogue%20AI%20could,agents%20without%20sufficient%20alignment%20guarantees.">published a blog post</a>, “How rogue AIs may arise,” that makes for gripping reading.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="znFGbW">
|
|||
|
|
“Even if we knew how to build safe superintelligent AIs,” he writes. “It is not clear how to prevent potentially rogue AIs to also be built. … Much more research in AI safety is needed, both at the technical level and at the policy level. For example, banning powerful AI systems (say beyond the abilities of GPT-4) that are given autonomy and agency would be a good start.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ELzTHh">
|
|||
|
|
Hinton, a fellow recipient of the 2018 A.M. Turing Award for his contributions as a leader in the field of deep learning, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/technology/ai-google-chatbot-engineer-quits-hinton.html">has also spoken out</a> in the last two months, calling existential risk from AI a real and troubling possibility. (The third co-recipient, Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, <a href="https://twitter.com/ylecun/status/1663616081582252032">remains a notable skeptic</a>.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="b1vYz4">
|
|||
|
|
Welcome to the resistance
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k0ILdR">
|
|||
|
|
Here at Future Perfect, of course, we’ve <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/2/18053418/elon-musk-artificial-intelligence-google-deepmind-openai">been arguing</a> that AI poses a genuine risk of human extinction since back in 2018. So it’s heartening to see a growing consensus that this is a problem – and growing interest in how to fix it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8hHUKE">
|
|||
|
|
But I do worry about the degree to which the increased acknowledgment that these risks are real, that they’re not science fiction, and that they’re our job to solve has yet to really change the pace of efforts to build powerful AI systems and transform our society.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L9meCi">
|
|||
|
|
Col. Hamilton, who told the story of how the simulated military AI would kill its handlers so they couldn’t call it off, had the takeaway that “you can’t have a conversation about artificial intelligence, intelligence, machine learning, autonomy if you’re not going to talk about ethics and AI.” Yet concerns like this haven’t stopped the Pentagon from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/us/politics/ai-military-war-nuclear-weapons-russia-china.html">going ahead</a> with artificial intelligence research and deployment, <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2023-03/news/pentagon-seeks-facilitate-autonomous-weapons-deployment">including autonomous weapons</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aRhTbE">
|
|||
|
|
Personally, my takeaway from this story was more like, let’s stop deploying more powerful AI systems, and avoid giving them more ability to take massively destructive actions in the real world, until we have a very clear conception of how we’ll know they are safe.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1u6SJZ">
|
|||
|
|
Otherwise, it feels disturbingly plausible that we’ll be pointing out the signs of catastrophe all around us, right up until the point that we’re walking into disaster.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LdtOwk">
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<em>A version of this story was initially published in the Future Perfect newsletter. </em><a href="https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/A2BA26698741513A"><em><strong>Sign up here to subscribe!</strong></em></a>
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</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Wrestlers’ protest | ‘Khap mahapanchayat’ in Kurukshetra demands arrest of WFI chief, gives Govt. time till June 9</strong> - The “khap mahapanchayat” deliberated on the next steps to be taken in the agitation pertaining to the wrestlers’ issue</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>RPPL planning to have at least five street circuits in India by 2025, says Akhil Reddy</strong> -</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Members of 1983 World Cup-winning team support wrestlers, urge them not to take hasty decision</strong> - In a joint statement, the 1983 triumphant team said it was distressed and disturbed after seeing the visuals of wrestlers being manhandled but also hoped that law of the land will prevail.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Thailand Open badminton: Lakshya enters semifinals, Kiran loses</strong> - The 21-year-old from Almora punched the air after unleashing a jump smash which sealed his 21-19 21-11 win over the qualifier from Malaysia in the quarterfinals</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Want justice for wrestlers, but after due process of law: Sports Minister Anurag Thakur</strong> - Sports Minister Anurag Thakur said the Delhi Police is expected to file a chargesheet in the matter soon. “All of us are in favour of a speedy investigation,” he added.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Duplicate Malabar Gold & Diamonds showroom in Pakistan shut down following legal battle</strong> - The company, in a statement, said it filed a legal case against Muhammad Faizan, a Pakistani national who illegally used the Malabar Gold & Diamonds brand name to operate a jewellery store in Islamabad.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tremendous anger among people on the way MVA govt. was toppled: Prithviraj Chavan</strong> - He said that seat sharing between the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena (UBT) was tough but all constituents wanted the MVA to continue</p></li>
|
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andhra Pradesh: Civil Supplies Department will distribute finger millet in Rayalaseema, wheat in North Andhra region from July, says Minister</strong> -</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Process for regularisation of services of VRAs initiated, says CM</strong> - Committee constituted to work out modalities for regularising services of JPS</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Women find their footing in tourism in flood-ravaged Kuttanad</strong> - While a group of six has opened water sports and entertainment park at a waterlogged paddy polder, others have opened cafeterias, health tourism clinic</p></li>
|
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</ul>
|
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
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<ul>
|
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Brics ministers call for rebalancing of global order away from West</strong> - The talks attended by Russia in South Africa are clouded by allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.</p></li>
|
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anthony Taylor: PGMOL condemns abuse directed at Europa League final referee</strong> - Referees’ body PGMOL says it is appalled by the abuse directed at Anthony Taylor by supporters at Budapest Airport after the Europa League final.</p></li>
|
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Poland’s quest to retrieve priceless Nazi-looted art</strong> - A 16th Century Italian painting looted by the Nazis has been returned to Poland from Japan.</p></li>
|
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andrew Tate BBC interview: Influencer challenged on misogyny and rape allegations</strong> - This is the influencer’s first TV interview with a major broadcaster while under house arrest.</p></li>
|
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Belgorod: Russia blames Ukraine for shelling inside border</strong> - The defence ministry claims it has also thwarted attempts by Kyiv to “invade” the Belgorod region.</p></li>
|
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</ul>
|
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
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<ul>
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Oppo Find N2 review: Beautiful hardware that Android just can’t deal with</strong> - Square-screened Android devices don’t play well with the app ecosystem. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1908663">link</a></p></li>
|
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|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rocket Report: SpaceX pushing ahead on Starbase, North Korea launch failure</strong> - “The world is putting objects into space quicker than they are being removed.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1943474">link</a></p></li>
|
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|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dealmaster: Discounts on games, toys, laptops, and more</strong> - Savings on laptops, games, and toys to keep you entertained this summer. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1943519">link</a></p></li>
|
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|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A bigger battery and three rows of seats for US-market VW ID Buzz</strong> - Everyone’s favorite EV minivan goes on sale in North America in 2024. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1943692">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Boeing finds two serious problems with Starliner just weeks before launch</strong> - “Safety is always our top priority, and that drives this decision.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1943847">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
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|
|
<ul>
|
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|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The husband leans over and asks his wife "Do you remember the first time we had sex together over fifty years ago?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
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|
|
<div class="md">
|
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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|
We went behind the village tavern where you leaned against the back fence and I made love to you."
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Yes, she says, “I remember it well.”
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
OK, he says, “How about taking a stroll around there again and we can do it for old time’s sake?”
|
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|
|
</p>
|
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|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Oh Jim, you old devil, that sounds like a crazy, but good idea!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
A police officer sitting in the next booth heard their conversation and, having a chuckle to himself, he thinks to himself, I’ve got to see these two old-timers having sex against a fence. I’ll just keep an eye on them so there’s no trouble. So he follows them.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The elderly couple walks haltingly along, leaning on each other for support aided by walking sticks. Finally, they get to the back of the tavern and make their way to the fence The old lady lifts her skirt and the old man drops his trousers. As she leans against the fence, the old man moves in..
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Then suddenly they erupt into the most furious sex that the policeman has ever seen. This goes on for about ten minutes while both are making loud noises and moaning and screaming. Finally, they both collapse, panting on the ground.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The policeman is amazed. He thinks he has learned something about life and old age that he didn’t know.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
After about half an hour of lying on the ground recovering, the old couple struggle to their feet and put their clothes back on.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The policeman, is still watching and thinks to himself, this is truly amazing, I’ve got to ask them what their secret is.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
So, as the couple passes, he says to them, “Excuse me, but that was something else. You must’ve had a fantastic sex life together. Is there some sort of secret to this?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Shaking, the old man is barely able to reply,
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Fifty years ago that wasn’t an electric fence.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HelpingHandsUs"> /u/HelpingHandsUs </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13y1nwm/the_husband_leans_over_and_asks_his_wife_do_you/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13y1nwm/the_husband_leans_over_and_asks_his_wife_do_you/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What do you call a hot babe you met at a party that’s blackout drunk?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
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|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
An Uber
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Bezbozny"> /u/Bezbozny </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13xtuo5/what_do_you_call_a_hot_babe_you_met_at_a_party/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13xtuo5/what_do_you_call_a_hot_babe_you_met_at_a_party/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nothing is built in America these days. I just bought a TV and it said “Built In Antenna”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
I don’t even know where that is!
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/sbiltihs"> /u/sbiltihs </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13xqfaa/nothing_is_built_in_america_these_days_i_just/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13xqfaa/nothing_is_built_in_america_these_days_i_just/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>There was an old professor who started every class with a vulgar joke…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
After one particularly nasty example, the women in the class decided to walk out the next time he started.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The professor got wind of this plot, so the next morning he walked in and said, “Good morning, class. Did you hear the one about the shortage of whores in Newfound Land?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
With that, all the women stood up and headed for the door.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Wait, ladies,” called the professor, “The boat doesn’t leave until tomorrow!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HelpingHandsUs"> /u/HelpingHandsUs </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13y9q0x/there_was_an_old_professor_who_started_every/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13y9q0x/there_was_an_old_professor_who_started_every/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What does sushi have in common with anal?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
You either love it, hate it, or you’re scared to try it. And if you hate it, people keep trying to convince you that yours just wasn’t prepared properly.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Mareep_needs_Sleep"> /u/Mareep_needs_Sleep </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13xrl3y/what_does_sushi_have_in_common_with_anal/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13xrl3y/what_does_sushi_have_in_common_with_anal/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
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|
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